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HiNZ KEYNOTE: Collaboration is key to success in health IT

Collaboration is the “winning formula” for New Zealand health IT firms to be successful in the global market, says global corporate strategist Dr Jens Mueller.

Dr Mueller, Global Strategy and Governance Professor at Waikato University Management School, is a keynote speaker at the Health Informatics New Zealand annual conference in Rotorua on November 1-3 2017.

His presentation - Competition, Isolation or Collaboration – A Winning Culture for Global Health Firms – will offer different alternatives for how health technology companies can cooperate or compete to create new markets.

Dr Mueller says that in a competitive global market, collaboration is most likely to be the winning formula over competition.

“If you focus on competition then you apply resources of the firm to that, which changes competitive behaviour, but doesn’t create wins. Collaboration creates faster markets and bigger markets,” he explains.
He says health is in a unique position because it deals with patients and technologies and resources which are “pretty much the same worldwide”.

“A heart attack is a heart attack, wherever it is.”

This means that resources from multiple firms can be combined to share data and collaboratively develop approaches for more efficient care.

Furthermore, the consumerisation of healthcare in countries such as China and Russia gives firms a chance to collaborate in markets where they previously could not get traction.

“It’s about creating a bigger pie, then fighting over the slice of it; but if you didn’t have the bigger pie, there would be nothing to fight over,” he adds.

Dr Mueller says New Zealand’s population is insufficient to support the growth of firms that focus only on the domestic market.

“There are no start-ups in New Zealand that wouldn’t eventually aim to be globally connected,” he explains.

“We have a very well-funded health system, we have ACC and free medicines through Pharmac; it’s an ideal breeding ground for refining health approaches and a great platform to develop new approaches for firms in New Zealand and overseas.”

“The important part is that we have a culture in firms of being open-minded and taking on board approaches that might be unrealistic today, but achievable tomorrow.”

Hear Dr Mueller and 27 other keynote speakers at the 2017 HiNZ Conference, 1-3 November in Rotorua.

The HiNZ Conference is New Zealand's largest digital health event. In 2016 over 1100 delegates from 20 countries attended the HiNZ Conference in Auckland.